Carolyn Herriot

Discovering The Artist Within!

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Carolyn Herriot is a food activist, author, passionate gardener and cook, who believes that healthy eating is the path to healthy aging. She encourages local food security through her books ‘The Zero-Mile Diet’ and has travelled extensively as a lecturer and workshop leader. After operating The Garden Path Centre in Victoria for 25 years she recently relocated to Yellow Point south of Nanaimo, where she has been trying her hand at farming in a rural community. She is currently enrolled as a student at the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition and still writes regularly for local publications under the heading From Farm to Table.

Many moons ago, I remember asking the person standing next to me at an artist’s studio party if he did anything that was artistic. He replied that he didn’tdo anything artistic, because he was only a gardener. I replied that I was also a gardener, but that I experienced gardening as painting in 3D. By considering design, shapes, colours and combinations I would create the

garden of my dreams; but as a garden is continually growing and changing it becomes an ongoing living work of art.

I have always been envious of artists. They take their talent for granted. It must be the way their brains are wired that enables them to envisage a work of art and translate it onto canvas. I grew up being denied the pleasure of playing with paints and colours, as my house-proud mother never allowed us to muck about and make a mess in our home, and she was always too busy to play with us. The school I attended did not have an art teacher, so I went through life feeling very limited in artistic experience.

I remember Laurel Hibbert at Arts on the Avenue in Ladysmith saying to me that all I had to do to be an artist was to pick up a brush and start painting, and I found this hard to believe. Her paintings are such fun that I am most envious of her. This year I was tempted to follow her advice, so I daringly signed up for twelve weeks of Seniors beginner art classes at the Ladysmith Waterfront Gallery. The day before the first class I realized that I was experiencing trepidation. My mind was reeling with “What if I can’t paint? What if I make a fool of myself? This could be SO embarrassing!”

In retirement I crave doing things I’ve never done before. I understand that my brain is neuroplastic and will develop new pathways when asked to learn. I view my foray into the artist’s world as a way of discovering more about myself and the way I see the world. What will the subject of my paintings be? Which techniques will I be drawn to using? What will my art say about me? This is the first step of an exciting journey, one that I eagerly anticipate for results.

“Leave your adult at the door, bring in your six year old and just have FUN!” said Barry Thompson, my art instructor. My anxiety shifted a notch. First draw circles. OK, I can do that. Now draw contours of an object from your purse. I chose my car keys. Draw the outline without looking at the keys and then turn the paper around and draw them again, so there are four images, one on each side of the paper. Now repeat that on canvas and paint in the shapes that result, taking hues, values and intensity into account. Oh oh, here we go!

It is seven weeks later and I have discovered that I just love painting, it’s almost as if I had been starved of playing with shapes and colours. Once I settle down to painting, which I now do every day, my mind is still and the hours just slip away. Instead of telling myself “I can’t”, I say “I’ll try and see what happens”. I move the judgemental part of me out of the way. My inner child is having a blast

Barry told us that he often has five paintings on the go, which he revisits at least six times each before they are completed. I felt ecstatic at the notion of just completing a first painting. When I stepped away from my first finished painting I felt reassured that there was a potential artist locked away in me somewhere.

Eventually I had several canvasses completed, each one

teaching me new techniques and testing my skill. Of course the subject matter is mostly botanical, as I am at home in the realm of nature, but now I am seeing the world through the lens of a paintbrush, and I often say to

myself as I observe the contours and colours of clouds, trees, ocean and mountainscapes, “that would make a wonderful painting.”

Laurel was right. Discovering the artist within only involves picking up a paintbrush, and a whole new world of pleasure and expression opens up. Better late than never!

Happy New Year 2020.! !

The Ladysmith Waterfront Gallery
has been moved to South Davis Road School,
444 Parkhill Terrace,
South Ladysmith.

 

Farmers markets Blog, Restaurants, Crafts, Hobbies, Recipes, Pets, Shop on-line. Women's Fashions, Woman to Woman. Island Woman magazine, inspiring the women of Vancouver Island, BC.Carolyn Herriot is author of The Zero Mile Diet and The Zero Mile Diet Cookbook Available at your local bookstore. 
She grows IncrEdibles! in Yellow Point. 
www.harbourpublishing.com/title/ZeroMileDiet

 

 

 

 

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